The Book Of Extraordinary Amateur Sleuth And Private Eye Stories

A cornucopia of the best new whodunits, collected by one of the mystery scene’s eminent editors, “a giant of the genre” (Lee Childs). One of the best mystery books of the 21st century, this volume features outstanding new stories of crime, derring-do, fast-paced adventures, and puzzles, featuring hardy amateur detectives ranging from young to old and grizzled private eyes whose patches cover the city streets, all in the hallowed tradition of Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, and Philip Marlowe. Jakubowski’s many anthologies, like The Book of Extraordinary Historical Mystery Stories, have attracted plenty of attention and awards. His newest collection, The Book of Extraordinary Amateur Sleuths and Private Eye Stories, features never-before-seen short fiction by some of the most renowned American and British crime and thriller authors of today. Whether the victim was done in at the party uptown or discovered in the other room of a particularly difficult woman or man, these mysteries will have you reading at the edge of your seat. Praise for Maxim Jakubowski and His Books “I have been a fan of Maxim Jakubowski for years. There just is no finer mystery writer and editor anywhere. Find a comfortable chair and a strong drink and prepare to be enthralled.” —Alexander Algren, author of Out in a Flash: Murder Mystery Flash Fiction “Maxim Jakubowski is deeply experienced in the field . . . Sometimes a brief zap of great writing is just what you’re in the mood for or have time for. That’s when anthologies like his are ideal . . . intellectually outstanding.” —New York Journal of Books

Holmes and Watson return in new detective stories by David Stuart Davies, Lavie Tidhar, Mark Mower, and more: “Highly recommended.” —Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher novels This cornucopia of dark deeds, deduction, and derring-do contains never-before-published stories featuring Sherlock Holmes and other favorite Conan Doyle characters—written by some of today’s best mystery and thriller writers and collected by one of the genre’s eminent editors. Contributors include: Jon Courtenay Grimwood * Lavie Tidhar * David Stuart Davies * John Grant * Rose Biggins * David N. Smith * O’Neil De Noux * Rhys Hughes * Catherine Lundoff * Mark Mower * Matthew Booth * Martin Daley * Jan Edwards * Ashley Lister * Keith Brooke * Naching T.Kassa * Phillip Vine * Bev Vincent * Keith Moray * Nick Sweet “Lavie Tidhar provides a tantalizing puzzle in ‘The Adventure of the Milford Silkworms,’ in which a female client appeals for help understanding the connection between an assault on a botanist and goats acting oddly. Bev Vincent’s ‘Bloody Sunday’ posits a clever plot behind one of the most notorious real-life riots of the Victorian era.” —Publishers Weekly “Sometimes a brief zap of great writing is just what you’re in the mood for or have time for. That’s when anthologies like his are ideal...intellectually outstanding.” —New York Journal of Books “The best short mystery and crime fiction of the year.” —Leonard Carpenter, author of Lusitania Lost

Private detectives and detective agencies played a major role in American history from 1870 to 1940. Pinkerton, Burns, Thiels, and the smaller independents were a multi-million dollar industry, hired out by many if not most American corporations, who needed services of surveillance, strike breaking, and labor espionage. Not only is John Walton's account the first sustained history of this industry, it is also the first book to trace the ways in which the private detective came to occupy a cherished place in popular imagination. Walton paints lively portraits of these mythical figures from Sherlock Holmes, the brilliant eccentric, to Sam Spade, the hard-boiled hero of Dashiell Hammett's best-selling tales. There's a great question lurking in here: how did pulp magazine editors shape the image of the hard-boiled private eye, and what sorts of interplay obtained between the actual records (agency files, memoirs) of these motley individuals in real life and the legend of the private detective in mass-market fiction? This history of the private eyes and this account of how the detective industry and the culture industry played off of each other is a first. Walton show us, in clean clear outline, the figure of the classical private eye, and he shows us further how the memory of this iconic figure was sustained in fiction, radio, film, literary societies, product promotions, adolescent entertainments, and a subculture of detective enthusiasts.

This is a collection of mystery short stories, a variety of traditional whodunnits, all with an Ancient Roman background. The tales take us to the turbulent frontier province of Britannia, the showy luxury of Rome itself, and right inside the glittering and dangerous court of Nero.

“Tidhar is a genius at conjuring realities that are just two steps to the left of our own.” –NPR “A warped genius... There is no one like him.” – Ian McDonald With an introduction by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, author of New York Times Bestseller Mexican Gothic Lavie Tidhar’s ground-breaking, award winning novel A Man Lies Dreaming introduced Adolf Hitler as a down-at-heels private detective, forced to eke out a miserable living in 1930s London. Forgotten by history, the man now calling himself Wolf is the lowest of the low, suffering fresh humiliations at every turn. Now Wolf is back, in five darkly comic new stories that see him take on blackmail, murder, and theft – not to mention his old comrades. A brilliant alternate history noir with a heart, these stories are in turn shocking, horrifying and comic, as could only come from the mind of World Fantasy Award winner Lavie Tidhar. PRAISE FOR LAVIE TIDHAR’S A MAN LIES DREAMING JERWOOD FICTION UNCOVERED PRIZE WINNER 2015 BRITISH FANTASY AWARD NOMINEE 2015 PREMIO ROMA NOMINEE 2016 GEFFEN PRIZE NOMINEE 2019 DUBLIN LITERATURE AWARD LONGLIST 2016 “Complex, elusive and intriguing” –The Jerusalem Post “Nasty, clever, waspish and witty... a brilliant and potent thought experiment” –The Sunday Herald “Bold and unnerving” –NPR “Damn good” –Jewish Book Council “A wholly original Holocaust story: as outlandish as it is poignant.” –Kirkus (starred review) “A vital, brilliant novel” –Barnes & Noble SFF Blog “Outstanding and moving” –Maxim Jakubowski, LoveReading.co.uk “Gripping... clever and thrilling work” –Buzz Magazine “In turns brutal, harrowing, heartbreaking and intriguing.... [an] unforgettable novel.” –Gulf Weekly “Poetic & terrible... quite incredible” –Tor.com “A brilliant novel.” –Pop Verse

Eighteen short stories of crime, suspense, and seduction exploring the timeless allure of lethal ladies. Dangerous women are a steadfast tradition in crime and mystery books—smart, sexy, and an invitation to trouble. From wealthy wives with secret lives to baby-faced beauties spinning webs and laying traps, this collection is filled with compelling short fiction featuring females who are deadlier than the male. With stories by Robert Lopresti, Bev Vincent, Ali Seay, Ana Teresa Pereira, Bernie Crosthwaite, and many more, this seductive volume was handpicked by Anthony Award winner Maxim Jakubowski to represent the finest femmes fatales in crime and mystery fiction.

From Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade to Jake Gittes, private eyes have made for some of the most memorable characters in cinema. We often view these detectives as lone wolves who confront and try to make sense of a violent and chaotic modern world. Bran Nicol challenges this stereotype in The Private Eye and offers a fresh take on this iconic character and the film noir genre. Nicol traces the history of private eye movies from the influential film noirs of the 1940s to 1970s neonoir cinema, whose slow and brilliant decline gave way to the fading of detectives into movie mythology today. Analyzing a number of classic films—including The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, Chinatown, and The Long Goodbye—he reveals that while these movies are ostensibly thrillers, they are actually occupied by issues of work and love. The private eye is not a romantic hero, Nicol argues, but a figure who investigates the concealments of others at the expense of his own private life. Combining a lucid introduction to an underexplored tradition in movie history with a new approach to the detective in film, this book casts new light on the private worlds of the private eye.